White Coal City

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This poignant exploration of life in Prince Albert, on Treaty Six territory, unfolds through a family's multigenerational narrative. Robert Boschman grew up in the King Koin Launderette, situated between a residential school and a jail, in a town marked by its hard, hockey-loving culture. Trauma lingered unspoken within his family, deeply affecting the men and boys. Boschman later uncovered the source of this silence: the tragic death of his grandmother, killed by a hit-and-run driver while pregnant. Her husband witnessed the incident and was haunted by it. Their story is revealed through letters, journal entries, newspaper clippings, and coroner's inquest accounts. Boschman portrays Prince Albert as a "circle of pain," a sentiment felt by white settlers but acutely experienced by generations of First Nations and Métis people who faced removal, incarceration, or abduction. The impacts of colonialism resonated within Boschman's family, prompting him to confront their role in Canada's troubling history. This work serves as a poetic and essential examination of the painful realities of colonial cities in Canada.